Because fructose is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, much effort has gone into developing processes for producing syrups in which more than 50% of the carbohydrate is fructose. Recently, a novel way to obtain fructose syrup of greater than 50% fructose content was disclosed in British Pat. No. 2,000,144. According to that procedure, a sucrose substrate is subjected to the action of a fructosyl transferase enzyme to convert the sucrose to an intermediate syrup containing predominantly fructose polymers and glucose. This syrup, in which the fructose is in polymeric form, can be further treated to produce fructose syrups in which more than 50% of the carbohydrate is fructose. An economical source of fructosyl transferase enzyme is essential to the successful operation of this process.
British Pat. No. 2,000,144 describes a process for the production and isolation of a fructosyl transferase enzyme from the fermentation broth of Aureobasidium pullulans. However, the fermentation carried out according to the process of that disclosure produces a black, viscous broth which contains large amounts of the polysaccharide, pullulan. Extensive processing is necessary to remove the color and the pullulan before the fructosyl transferase enzyme can be isolated. Furthermore, the amount of enzyme obtained from the fermentation broth is comparatively low. There, therefore, exists a need for an improved process for the production of a fructosyl transferase enzyme preparation.